The Gordon House Surgery in Ealing received no pay for the patient participation 2012/13 DES, despite meeting all but one requirement: it forgot to put a link to its patient participation report on its website.

Patients chose to speak out after an appeal by the practice over the DES funding was rejected. They feel the practice not only carried out the necessary work, but ‘went the extra mile’ to involve patients.

The practice’s patient forum lead Diana Dishley said: ‘The GPs are demoralised after all their hard work. The decision seems unfair for such a petty little thing.’

She explained that the practice had fulfilled all the criteria for the DES. ‘They submitted the report by the right date, and an action plan, and put up survey results and the action plan on the website.

‘But they hadn’t realised they needed to publish the full report on the website. As soon as they realised, they put it up.’

She called the decision not to award the practice its DES payment ‘astounding’.

‘They have definitely gone the extra mile – they have prepared and delivered presentations, events have been so successful we had to step in and bring Q&A sessions to an end because we ran over time. The practice manager and doctors have done a lot of work.’

In the letter to support the practice’s appeal over the DES funding, Mrs Dishley and fellow lay members of the practice’s steering committee Christine Heaton and Kalpana Kamboj wrote: ‘We think that our practices should be judged more by what excellent caring and supportive service they give to their patients together with their resulting success in establishing active patient involvement and participation that is leading directly to what the government is requiring – the involvement of patients in their healthcare – rather than being punished in such a draconian way for a late addition to a website.’

Has your practice experienced a similar problem with DES funding? If so, please contact neil.roberts@haymarket.com